Storm blows competition away

THE Grafton Greyhound Club had its new 305-metre boxes installed through the week and instantly it made for cleaner racing with the Steriline boxes providing for more racing room at the start.

One greyhound who really appreciated this was the Bob Merillo-trained Bokarm Storm, which overcame the dreaded six box with ease in the Coutts Crossing Fishing Club Stake.

Bokarm Storm broke the first section record in running 3.12 seconds before eventually recording the brilliant overall time of 17.39 seconds, which compares well to the track record of 17.31 seconds.

Following the running of the Carter’s Canine Capers Maiden heats last week, many believed the Reg Kay-trained Pure Lee Fooling had the final at her mercy. Throw in box 1 and the chances of her opponents seemed to be more forlorn and, for once, a final actually followed the script.

Punters had no fear in sending Pure Lee Fooling to the boxes as a dominant $1.50 race favourite and at no stage did her supporters have any need for concern.

The speedy daughter of Pure Octane and Hearts War was nicely away from her prized inside draw and once she shook off Belle Adios in the early stages, the race was as good as over.

Pure Lee Fooling sped through the first section in a fast 8.39 seconds before running out a strong 22.94-second victor, which was the best time of the day.

The other feature event on the day was the Betfair Blue Paws Super Series final, and didn’t it draw together a high-class field?

The Brad Northfield-trained Bralyn Beau was the one punters wanted after an impressive 22.83-second heat win the week before and he was sent out as a $2.10 favourite.

Unfortunately for favourite backers and connections, Bralyn Beau was unable to navigate a clear passage in the run to the turn and eventually finished fifth.

The supporters of $4.60 second favourite Watch Me Burn were feeling much better as the Terry Guymer-trained sprinter was able to win a hard-fought speed battle in the run to the first turn before going on to a solid 2.5 length victory over the second reserve Stand Tall.

Mr Jingles was 1.25 lengths back in third in the time of 23.23 seconds.

While Watch Me Burn is building a smart resume, her trainer can only lament about how good she could be as this talented chaser suffers epileptic fits and he fears we may never see the best of her.

There were also four strong heats of the Coutts Crossing Cup run on Thursday with the final to be run on Saturday, April 16.

The fastest qualifier was the Greg Stella-trained Rylee’s Ebony which took out the Fullers Bus Service Cup heat 4 in the quick time of 23.09 seconds.

Punters supported Rylee’s Ebony into a dominant $1.70 favourite on the back of a flying 19.57-second victory up the straight at Capalaba. As with Pure Lee Fooling, they never had doubts in running.

Rylee’s Ebony recorded the quick time of 23.09 seconds in defeating Reflux Cloud.

Another to impress was the Ken Neave-trained Hidden Riches. She recorded a time of 23.13 seconds in taking out the Jack Demmery Bus Services Cup heat 1 over Mascara Cloud.

Hidden Riches is from the successful Hallucinate and Odnoc Chantilly litter which features Mrs Slocombe and Gordon Ghekko and, on the strength of her performance in the heat, we can expect to see plenty of wins from this litter member as well.